The parable starts off with a sower sowing his seeds. The seeds scattered and fell into four different kinds of grounds: by the wayside, upon stony places, among thorns, and some on good ground. The different grounds represent us and the seed represents the word of God. Which ground are we? How do we take the word of God? Let’s go in detail how each seed grows, depending on the ground it landed on.

The first ground mentioned in the parable is the wayside. “When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside” (Matthew 13:19). When a seed is sown by the wayside, there is no way for it to grow. The wayside is an area where people walk on, so the seed, before it can even place itself on the ground, will be trampled and stepped on by the numerous steps and stomps of various people. Therefore, people who are like the wayside listen to the word of God, but don’t understand it or receive it.

The second type of ground is stony places. “But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended” (Matthew 12:20-21). When a seed is planted in stony places, since the ground is hard, the seed is not able to have a deep root in the ground. Therefore if a strong wind blows by or the sun is up, the plant will scorch and be withered away. People like the stony places are those who receive the truth when they hear it and they believe in it, but the truth is not planted deep into their hearts and so when the truth seems to point out their exact sin, they get offended by the word. Therefore, they don’t grow to bear a lot of good fruit.

The third type of ground is the saddest one, the seed that is planted among thorns. “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22). The seed planted among thorns is the saddest because it was so close to bearing good fruit, but the care of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choked it. If you have ever planted something, you should know that although weeds come into the ground very easily, they are very hard to take out because the weed’s roots become extremely tangled with your plant’s roots. Therefore, the weed ends up taking all of the plant’s nutrients and eventually kills the plant just like how the cares of this world and its riches can take our eyes off of Jesus and make the word of God lose its power in our hearts. That is why we are reminded multiple times in the Bible to “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:15) and to “not conform to the patterns of this world” (Romans 12:2).

The fourth and last type of ground is the good ground. “But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Matthew 13:23). This is the ground that we need to be. We must hear the word, understand it, believe it, and then spread the word to everyone around us. We must grow bearing fruit, and in order to grow, we must make our foundation a good foundation.

Today, we must all re-examine ourselves just like it tells us to in 2 Corinthians 13:5. Even though Paul told this to the church in Corinth, his message is also meant to be told to us today. We need to realize that we are the variable, not God, and that we need to change ourselves. We need to become that good ground. We need to receive the word of God and the truth. And we need to bear fruit and spread the gospel to the world, for this is the main object of a Christian’s life: to bear fruit.